Tribe (2025) Movie Script
1
[logo chimes]
[eerie music]
[eerie music continues]
Um, this condition has
gotten significantly worse
and I don't quite
know what to do.
I'm, I'm absolutely at a loss,
and I'm reaching a
point of desperation.
I cannot get out of here.
I get behind the
wheel of my truck
that is attached to this camper,
and I try to drive away
and I don't know how to drive.
I don't know how to
move the vehicle.
I don't know the symbols,
I don't...
I literally stare at it
like, I have no idea
how to use this truck.
It is as if my brain
is a hard drive
and something has gone through
and removed the apps of
communication and contact,
but left everything
else the same.
I have no idea how I got here
and how to get out of here.
Whatever this is,
whatever's going on here,
I, I don't it doesn't hurt,
but it obviously is directly
related to the fact that I've,
um,
I've...
I've lost my mind.
So I was searching around
this trailer today,
I came across a, a storage
compartment inside of it.
It had all these,
they're like media drives.
They're like,
uh, things you would hook up
to a camera or a video system
and they all have names on them.
This one says Mount Shasta,
this one says Charlie,
and there's a bunch of them.
I think I can remember how to
hook up some of these cameras,
and I'm thinking
maybe they could
offer some kind of explanation.
Maybe they give me some kind
of help to get out of here.
I don't know.
[sighs]
I gotta get out of here.
I don't know, I'm gonna try it.
So the other reason I really
like this light is because you
can adjust the colour
temperatures right here.
But the best thing is it
runs off a battery pack
so that you can use it
as a lighting source,
but you can also
use it as a lantern,
which sometimes...
[groans]
maybe I should turn off my
phone before I start taping.
Kate, you call me more now than
when you were married to me.
Hello?
Yeah. Hey, what's up?
Um, yeah, I'm around tomorrow.
What's going on?
Trip down memory...
What kind of trip
down memory lane?
Yeah, all right,
I'm around all day tomorrow.
Um. Yeah.
Stop by the house.
Okay. Bye.
All right.
Turn, turn off your
fucking phone, Devin.
All right, let's do this again.
And yet, the quality,
This shoots 4K just
as well as this canon,
and it's about half the size.
Hello? Hey, come in.
Yeah.
- Oh wow, what do you
got going on here?
You got a lot of stuff.
- Yeah, well, I'm doing a, um...
You know, I, I, you know
how much I love videography
and stuff like that.
So now I'm doing some posts...
I'm posting stuff
on social media
comparing like, cameras.
So people who go hiking
and you know, it's...
now I've got some
time on my hands,
- Yeah.
- so I'm doing it, so.
- Keeping yourself busy, well...
- Yeah, it's cool,
how are you doing?
- I'm good, I'm good.
I just wanted to stop by and
drop something off for you, uh.
- What is this?
- Okay, so Charlie gave
me this box of tapes.
- Charlie?
- Charlie did, yeah.
And he asked me
to hang on to them
and give them to you
once you were retired.
[Kate laughs]
I have no idea why.
- Dude, these are...
- Look at these.
- This is, like, back when
we were in school together.
- I know, I didn't
give them much thought
because you know Charlie.
- Have you looked at them?
- I haven't, no, no, I...
- Do you want to look at them?
- No. I'm pretty good with
leaving the past in the past.
I, I, God love Charlie,
but, uh, whatever they are
I probably wouldn't
understand it anyway.
- Wow, this is really cool.
Maybe I'll do a
video about this.
- Yes, yes you should.
- You should.
- Really bizarre.
Um, well, thank you
for bringing them by,
- Yeah, no problem.
- Do you want to...
- Do you want some more
coffee or something?
- No, no,
I'm good, I gotta run.
I just, uh, hope you don't mind
me just crashing your party.
But I just wanted to...
- Listen, I appreciate
you coming by.
- It's really good to see you.
- No problem.
- If there's some
interesting stuff on here,
I think I may
digitise these tapes.
That way I can bring them
into the editing system
and have more control over it.
I know it's not necessarily
the best system to digitise,
but maybe at least offer
some clues as to why
these tapes were left for
me in the first place.
[tape humming]
- I heard from a
few people today,
so the word's already spreading,
that you totally freaked
the fuck out in class
and scared the shit
out of everyone.
Scared the shit out
of your professor.
[Devin] What?
- And...
[Devin] Wait, what did you do?
- What happened, man?
[Devin] Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Yeah. What did you do?
- There's just so much fucking
lying going on in these classes.
I asked...
I was in my anthropology class
and I asked my
professor about it,
I asked a question about
the Silurian theory.
[Devin] The what?
- And he just kind of
blew right past it,
just dismissed it
as fucking nonsense.
[Devin] Wait.
- It just...
it pissed me off, so I got...
Yeah, I got in his face.
[Devin] The what theory?
- So, you got so upset about...
what is this, the salvia theory?
[Devin] The Saliva.
- The Saliva theory?
[Devin] It's the Saliva theory.
- It's the Silurian theory,
dumbass.
It's basically...
it's this theory that says
our evolution was basically
tied to another advanced
or intelligent species
- Like aliens?
Is that what you're saying?
- Yeah, I mean, maybe, or,
you know, another species
kind of like us, intelligent,
that evolved and then died
out millions of years ago.
- Kind of fucking crazy.
[Devin] Yeah, dude, you're on a
scholarship, bro.
What are you...
[eerie music]
- Let's do some math.
Let's take fucking...
Let's take dinosaurs
as an example.
So.
[Devin chuckling]
- T-Rex.
There were about 20,000 of
them at any given point,
and they were around for
about 2.5 million years.
So 120,000, some odd
generations, 2.5 billion total.
- Ever?
- Yeah, ever.
Out of that, you know
how many we've found?
What do you mean, like, like
fossils and museums and stuff?
- Yeah.
- All time, that we found?
- You know how many?
- 5000?
[Devin] Yeah, a thousand?
- A thousand?
[Devin] Easily a thousand.
- Right? Easy.
- Less than 50.
[Devin] What?
- Bullshit. I call bullshit.
- That's a fact.
[Devin] For real?
[Devin] Is that a real stat?
- Less than 50.
There's another species
kind of like us,
however many millions
of years ago.
It's pretty safe to assume that
there'd be no evidence of them.
Just like there's been...
There's going to be
no evidence of us.
No cars, no skyscrapers,
no plastics, no bones.
[eerie music]
[Devin] I think it's an
interesting idea
as a thought experiment,
Charlie, um, I do,
but I don't think you can apply
real science to this stuff.
- Real science?
[Devin] You know what I mean?
Why isn't this
fucking real science?
- Because it's not
in our textbooks.
- No, listen, this
is the problem
with our fucking education.
It assumes that our
evolution had something to do
with some kind of divine,
superior intelligence.
It kind of moved
us along like that.
Like, like we were chosen.
It's like, it's kind of like
my dad used to say, you know,
we were talking
about our church,
just that you don't
have to worship a God,
you can worship another kind
of higher consciousness.
[Devin] Wait, wait, was this the
church in the mountain?
- Yeah.
[Devin] Yeah.
- I don't know, man.
[Devin] Yeah, I'm done.
- You're acting a little weird.
[Devin] I'm done.
Hey. Thank you for coming over.
Do you mind if I film you?
- Oh. [laughs]
[Devin] I know, I know,
it's... come on in.
Let me explain.
- Do I need to do a little pose?
[Devin] Uh, no.
Okay, so this has
everything to do with
those, uh, tapes you
brought over the other day.
So I'm...
I have a couple of
questions for you,
but I'm filming everything now,
because of some
of the stuff
I've been discovering
on these tapes.
So do you mind if I just ask you
a couple of questions on camera?
- Um, okay.
[Devin] Okay, cool, thanks,
let's, let's go
in the other room.
Do you remember Charlie used to
talk about this
church all the time.
- Oh, yeah.
- Do you remember
[Devin] what that was called?
- Oh my gosh, yes.
The, uh,
The church of heaven's light.
[Devin] Heaven's light?
- Remember? He would
not shut up about it.
[Devin] Yeah,
he was obsessed with that.
- Wow do you think that that
something with the church
had something to do with
why he killed himself.
[Devin] I don't know.
I don't know.
I mean, well, you know, I
think the whole church thing
was him processing what
happened to his dad.
- That's what I always thought.
[Devin] Yeah, so...
- I didn't think much of the
church one way or the other,
I just thought it was...
[Devin] I didn't
think it was real.
- I didn't either.
[Devin] Yeah. so, okay, well,
this is, this is helpful.
So what I'm thinking is,
could I show you...
Would you be okay if I showed
you a couple of these clips
- Yeah.
[Devin] that I've come across?
Because I just wanna...
Maybe it'll jog
something in your memory,
or maybe you'd be like, oh,
yeah, no, I remember that part.
And maybe I'm just
simply forgetting.
- Yeah, I'm happy to look at it.
I'm curious to look
at the tapes now.
[tape humming]
It's not good at all.
I have three essays,
all due on Wednesday.
- You got to get your boyfriend
to ease back a little bit,
but, it's still...
he's just talking on and on.
- God, will you
please go easy on him?
I mean, we only have two more
weeks and then we're free.
Speaking of which,
are we still going up to
the mountain next month.
- Oh, dude, I can't wait.
[eerie music]
[music intensifies]
[Kate] Are you sure?
Being up there?
- Yes, mom.
I'll be fine, thanks.
Here, let me see that.
Okay. I mean, I just worry,
that's all.
[Charlie] You don't
got to worry.
I love it when we go up there.
Plus, it's God's country.
- Oh my God! Stop! You dick!
- What are we talking
over here, guys?
You guys talking
about constellations?
- Yeah.
Yeah, I don't...
- Yeah, I couldn't find them.
- Yeah, I know, like
I know the dippers,
the big and the little ones,
but yeah, I think whoever
came up with the other ones
was probably really bored.
[Alex laughs]
- Or really baked.
[eerie music]
- What about the
black and white?
Like, what was that?
[Devin] I don't know, and that's
what I'm trying to figure out.
- That's down on
that, that, that land.
I recognise the land,
but the shipping
container thing.
[Devin] Yeah, I don't know.
- And who was the guy?
- Again, I don't know.
- Ooh, dude, that's creepy.
[Devin] Yeah. Okay, well, good,
I'm just glad I'm not crazy.
- No, I don't remember
any of that.
You should get down there
and figure out what that is.
[bright orchestral music]
- Good God, they're huge.
Okay, uh, whoo.
I am way the hell up here.
Just to let you know,
I'm we're, um, yeah,
way up here and kind of
in the middle of nowhere
and going higher.
So I'm not quite sure what is
going to happen with the signal,
so I just wanted to
make you a quick video.
Um, yeah, I think it's
going to be pretty cool.
[bright orchestral music ends]
Don't be jealous of this look.
[birds singing]
Hey there, my name
is Devin Adams.
I'm a retired doctor
of visual studies
from the University of
Southern California.
Should we keep going?
Okay, let's go to a bar.
There she goes.
I'm out here in the
Cuyamaca Mountains.
They are 20/25 minutes
northeast of Mexico.
I'm up here because of a
certain series of events
that took place,
starting with the death of a
very, very dear friend of mine
by the name of Charles Anker.
Charlie was a brilliant guy,
we were really close.
We met, we were
roommates in college.
In fact, my ex-wife and I met
him when we were sophomores,
and we were quite the trio.
We'd come up here
sometimes, actually,
because my wife and
I thought it might be
therapeutic for Charlie,
given what happened to
him in his childhood.
I know this might seem hard
to believe, but Charlie,
when he was ten years old,
was discovered walking
in these mountains alone
by some weekend campers,
and they immediately
swept him up.
He told the authorities that
he was on a camping trip
with his church
congregation and his father,
and so they immediately
sent out a search party.
And the only thing they
found, unfortunately,
was Charlie's father,
who had fallen off one
of these massive boulders
while hiking and
had broken his neck.
Unfortunately,
Charlie never really
knew his mother,
so he ended up going
into foster care.
But, you know, like I said,
he was a really tough kid.
He was really brilliant,
very book smart,
and he earned himself
a scholarship.
He was pretty resilient.
But as with most relationships,
as you get older,
they start to fade,
and my connections with
Charlie became pretty distant.
[sombre music]
These things are incredible,
especially when you've
got this kind of scenery.
It's extraordinary.
She doesn't care for
the drone, but, um,
it really is cool because
you get this footage
and then I'll just
kind of put music to it
and I'll just throw
it in the timeline.
You know, the editing
system that I'm working on.
Okay,
here we go.
You gonna get her?
[Devin laughs]
You don't like it, do you?
[drone whirring]
But you gonna get it?
[dog barking]
Okay. All right,
here we go, ready?
Here it goes.
[suspenseful music]
Pretty cool, huh?
You're like, fuck that thing.
Okay, I thought I'd
show you guys this.
Uh, this is one of the perks of
retirement.
Yeah, I thought I would
bring this sucker up here.
Put it on a trailer and
brought it up a few days ago.
I thought it might
help in the search.
Get into some
really tight spaces,
but it's also super fun.
[engine roaring]
And there's always
something I've wanted to do.
Total mad Max.
[engine roaring]
Whoa!
Come on, man!
[upbeat music]
Okay, so I've been cruising all
over the place with this sucker,
and, um,
just came across something
pretty interesting.
Ta da!
I have no clue.
It just doesn't...
Looks in great shape.
Which is impossible
given the fact that it's
at least 30 years old.
[sighs] I don't know.
This just doesn't
make any sense.
It's...
it's all...
it's locked on the front,
on both sides.
It's got a padlock on it.
I don't, I don't get it.
I don't get it.
I'm confused even more now.
None of this makes
any fucking sense.
Okay. Welcome to the
incredibly spacious camper.
It's all of 15ft,
but it's...
will definitely protect me
from whatever is out there.
This is a trail cam.
These are some high
quality trail cams
that shoot its signal
up to the cloud.
And I'm going to
take two of these
and place them on opposite
sides of the conex,
the shipping container.
I just want to see
what kind of traffic
is potentially either coming
in and out of that thing
or what might be just around it.
So I'm going to put these out
tonight and, um, we'll see.
Uh, go back in a couple
days and take a look.
But...
yeah, we'll see what we see.
[heavy breathing]
[bird calls]
[insects chirping]
[bird calls]
[intense music]
[eerie music]
Okay, so that freaked
me the fuck out.
Uh, I'm not quite sure
what's going on here,
but whoever, whatever it
was that grabbed that,
my trail cam has
now brought it
into the shipping
container with them,
and they are filming
themselves inside the conex.
[eerie music]
I reached out to a friend
of mine named Malcolm Owens.
He's in the
anthropology department
at University of Wisconsin,
and he, I asked him if he'd be
willing to do a Zoom with me,
because I wanted to
ask him specifically
about this dysmorphia.
As well as I noticed,
this was really interesting,
at the end of that footage,
as close as I could tell,
it looked like that individual
was either reading a notebook
or holding a
notebook in his hand.
- The other option would be,
you know, quite frankly,
whether or not it has
become a cultural aspect
of removing the nose
for ceremonial reasons
or for hygienic reasons,
or for just outward
appearance ideas.
Or is this something that they
outwardly disfigure
themselves on purpose
as part of a cultural ritual
that might have some bearing
on where they're at
and what, what they're doing.
- I, it's interesting, uh,
honestly, Malcolm, I
hadn't thought of that.
I hadn't thought of
the idea that they had,
this was almost like
a self-mutilation.
Maybe this is a cultural
thing they're doing.
- I think I would lean more
towards the cultural aspect,
um, or a ceremonial aspect.
Did you see it?
Was your interpretation
of the image
that he was reading
this notebook?
- I, you know, I don't
want to go so far as to
anthropomorphise a
a particular act.
Is this a piece of artwork?
Is this, you know,
a writing sample?
Is this a, a song?
I don't know.
- Archer. Hey, oh, my God,
you accepted the invite.
Thank you so much.
How are you?
What's going on?
How's SC?
- I'm good, Dr Adams,
it's so great to hear from you.
To see you.
Um, SC is great.
I graduate the program soon.
Christmas around that time.
So that's cool.
- That's amazing, Archer,
I'm so proud of you.
What? You're getting your
degree in criminology now,
is that right?
- Yeah, yeah,
I actually, I, I might even
have a line-up job for me
if you...
Did you get that email about
the letter of recommendation?
- I did.
- Yeah, yeah. I really,
really need it.
So if you can do it soon.
- I will, and I'm going to write
something up when I get back.
Um, listen, I know we need to do
a full sit down and a catch up.
I mean, it's been
a little while, so,
but I don't have
a lot of time up...
I'm, I'm kind of up here
and the internet is spotty.
- Where are you?
- I'm up in the, uh, the
Cuyamaca Mountains.
They're just east of, actually,
San Diego in the city.
I'm doing a favour
for an old friend,
um, and it's a long story,
and I'll kind of
share it with you
when I've got a
little more time.
So listen, this, this community
that I'm searching for is,
it was known as the
Church of Heaven's Light.
So have you ever heard
of something like that?
I, I, I'm just kind of curious,
in your research over the years.
- Is it a commune or
an actual church?
- You know, honestly,
Archer, I don't know.
Um, I, my understanding is that
it was a spiritual community
that was living up here in the
mountains, kind of off grid,
like living a
primitive lifestyle.
Um, so that's kind
of all I know.
- I can ask some of my friends,
we can scour the net.
I have some weird
sites bookmarked,
so that would definitely
come in handy.
I'll just write down
your notes here.
- I came across a
conex the other day
and you know, a conex is
like a shipping container.
It's huge, like 40 foot,
40 foot shipping container.
And it was in this
really good shape,
but, but I think, I think people
are using it as a shelter.
- Devin, if people are up in
the mountains by themselves,
I'm pretty sure they
don't want to be bothered.
Okay? And if they're
in shipping containers,
that means that they're
moving around a lot.
- Yeah.
- Be careful.
I don't think you should
be up there by yourself.
- Okay. All right.
Um. Uh.
Shit. You know what?
You've gone frozen.
You know?
Archer, are you still there?
- Devin, did you hear what
I said about calling backup?
- Uh, Archer, are you there?
- Doctor Adams?
don't forget about the
letter of recommendation
if you can hear me.
[computer chimes]
- Okay. It's dusk here,
and I've been tooling
around on this side-by-side,
and I was gonna
head back to camp,
but I thought I would
do one more drive-by
on the shipping container
just to see if
anything was going on.
And, uh, the...
The door, the door is open.
And I come rumbling up here
on this fucking side-by-side,
but I can't hear anything.
I have no video equipment
aside from this, uh, body cam,
but I feel like I'm here.
The door is open,
I should go in.
Yeah.
Hopefully, I can catch...
I don't know what's in here.
Hello?
Hello? Anybody there?
Anybody home?
What the fuck?
That's a candle.
That is a lit candle.
[knocks on door] Hey, hello?
Anybody home?
[Devin sighs]
[indistinct]
I think those are the notebooks
that I saw in the
trail cam footage.
I want to see what's in those.
I want to see what's
in those notebooks.
Hello? Anybody home?
What is this?
It looks like math.
[eerie music]
Hello?
Hello. I just...
Hello.
So, listen, first of all, Sean,
I want you to know how
much I really appreciate
you doing this for me.
I don't know what to think
about these notebooks.
- The notebooks are very weird,
and they look like gibberish,
but if you start to analyse
them, then you get some...
you see some math at a
staggeringly high level,
and it's, like, it seems
like a mess at first,
and I was almost like, Devin,
what have you done to me?
But then I got into it
and there was some great,
fascinating material here,
extraordinary math in there.
The most compelling
thing we found
was what looks like
there are four different
sets of coordinates
and they're pointing to four
different places on the planet.
The vortexes that they refer to,
one is in Sedona, Arizona.
One is Mount Shasta, California.
The third is a location in
Zion National Park in Utah.
And the strangest of all
are the coordin a tes
for this location
that's just north of us here.
And that is Viroqua
in Wisconsin.
- Is there a language going
on here amidst all this?
- Okay, so we applied
this old school method,
the Tamario method,
and I had some graduate
students work with me on this.
And it turns out that
some of the long numbers,
like you can basically translate
them into another language,
and in this case,
we found parallels,
like we could sort of de-encrypt
it into German in some places,
and we transferred
that to English,
and we came up with some
pretty cryptic shit,
I got to say.
Now, this is a very
loose translation.
I'm sure you're going to want
to run this by a linguist.
But this is what we came up with
for one of the,
one of the passages.
we've got, quote,
prepare for heaven's light.
You don't need eyes
to see your Saviour.
Now, there was some debate about
whether we should use
this term Saviour,
but for this translation,
let's go with it.
Forget the mind to
find your faith.
The faithless will
suffer forever.
End quote.
Now what the hell
is going on there?
- Holy shit, you're really sure?
This is what these
numbers translate to?
- It's almost like...
- Yes.
- Scripture.
- It feels very scriptural to,
to, to us over here in the lab.
- Okay, so I'm at the
shipping container.
I'm going to give it a shot.
I'm going to try
to open the door.
I've got my video camera here.
I've got my body cam on.
I'm going to put this down here.
[doors creaking]
[dramatic thud]
[doors creaking]
[Devin breathing shakily]
[eerie voice talking
indistinctly]
[voice continues]
- Devin, Archer here.
So I did try to do some
research on Heaven's Light.
Didn't find much.
However, I did come across
a file that was documented
by a woman named Gina Globe.
So it says here that she
was a topographical mapper
for the Bureau of
Land Management
in San Diego County.
And around eight years ago,
she claims she came across
a shipping container while
documenting some acreage
in the Cuyumacas.
In a file, she claimed that the
conex was in pristine condition
and there was no record of its
location filed with the county.
The report says that she
discovered several people
living in primitive conditions
inside the container.
So there was a contact
number for Gina
and I decided to call her.
I don't know why,
I had to call six times,
but anyways, when I
did finally reach her,
she denied the entire report.
I don't want to say
that she was lying,
but you could tell that
she was hiding something.
Or as if she was afraid
to say something.
I don't know, maybe I'm
looking into it way too much,
but just give me a call
back when you can.
[screen flickers]
[phone ringing]
- Hey, Devin, it's Kate.
Uh, I'm just checking to see
if you're back in the city yet.
I have something that I found
that I think you find
pretty interesting.
So give me a call when
you have a second.
I'd love to swing
by and see you,
um, and let's have a chat.
- Hi.
[Devin] Hey.
[Devin] Uh, well, come on in.
- It's not my house any more.
[Devin] Yeah.
- Sorry.
[Devin] That's okay.
Wait, wait, wait, wait,
what's going on?
- You've got your camera going.
[Devin] Yes, I do.
- You're not going
to believe this.
Um, so what do I start?
Okay, so right
after our divorce,
Charlie knew I was broke.
He offered me some money to do
some accounting and bookkeeping.
I think I mentioned...
- I remember you telling
me a little bit about this,
but it was just spotty.
- Yeah, so anyway,
right after he killed himself,
his office manager
got in touch with me
and just wanted to send me some
of the financials
from the business.
- Okay.
- And so I got these
boxes of financials
and I didn't think
anything of it,
so I just threw it into storage.
- Right.
- But then after
I saw your video,
I decided to go through
one of the boxes,
and in one of the
boxes I found this.
- What is this?
- You are not going
to believe this.
- What is it?
- It's very old.
- Yeah, clearly.
- It is the history of the
Church of Heaven's Light.
- No way.
- I kid you not.
- There's old photos.
- Be very careful with it.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Old photos,
diaries, everything.
The crazy shit that
Charlie used to talk about,
it's all in here.
And it's written by,
get this,
it's written by a guy,
his name was Timothy Anker.
- Charlie Anker. Oh my god.
- I think it's like his great
great-grandfather or something,
[Devin] Oh my god, that's crazy.
[Kate] who wrote this.
I don't even know where to start
to tell you what's in here.
First of all,
what do you know about
the Mormon church?
- I, not very much, I know,
like John Smith or Joe Smith.
- Joseph Smith.
See, I didn't know either,
so I did a deep dive.
I took some notes.
Okay, so after the
death of Joseph Smith,
Brigham Young,
you've heard of him, right?
Okay, so he leads
the group from, um,
he leads a group from Nauvoo,
Illinois, to Salt Lake City.
That's how they land in Utah.
- Okay.
- And at the same time, there
was a group of 30 or so Puritans
living in a place called
Viroqua, Wisconsin.
Viroqua
- Viroqua, Wisconsin.
Okay, so you don't
know any of this,
but I hired this guy, this man,
I found these journals in this
shipping container down there.
They were full of numbers and
all sorts of weird equations,
and I gave them
to a mathematician
who was a, just a peer of mine
and its coordinates
and its coordinates to a place
in Viroqua, fucking Wisconsin.
- Yeah. This is...
- What?
- Okay. Keep going, keep going.
- Okay, so when they heard
of Brigham Young's exodus,
they decided to join him
and go to Salt Lake City,
but once they arrived there,
the group from Wisconsin
had issues with Young's
leadership in the church.
And, you know, their views
were far more conservative
than the Mormons.
- So I know, right?
- Wow, yeah.
- How do you be more
conservative than them?
- Yeah.
- So they decided to
pick up and go west.
They went to a place called
Mount Shasta,
Northern California.
- Yeah, we...
- No, yeah.
- We drove past Mount Shasta
- Right, exactly, I think
we went up there once.
They put down roots
and established a religious
community for over 40 years.
So this section I
want to read for you
speaks specifically to what
you said you saw, those people.
- Yeah.
- "Our camp has become
a strong community
over the past four months.
We've thrived in the shadow
of the mighty Mount Shasta.
It feels as though all of
our promises have come true.
Our church leader,
Reverend Ramsey,
has truly delivered
us unto salvation
by setting up this
community of faithful.
There have been multiple
sightings and visitations
from holy apparitions
since we've come to camp."
- What?
"After every sighting, there
are several worshippers
who are suddenly
cured of all ailments,
while at the same time
there are a few unfortunate
members of our church
who are stricken with
a terrible deformity.
It's as if their heads and
faces have become bloated
by some terrible condition.
They lose the ability to
speak and communicate,
but they seem to have grown
more robust in other ways.
I see them working in the rain
and cold longer than most,
but because of
their terrible brow,
they are ostracised by
the rest of the church.
I'm afraid the council
will vote to exile them
from our congregation."
There's another section I think
it was written by Charlie.
I think he did a
deep dive on this.
- "So after settling into
the church in the 1860s,
the congregation started
experiencing strong segregation
from the results of
the divine visits.
Parishioners who were
liberated from their ailments
were known as the blessed,
whilst those
suffering deformities
were known as the cursed."
[Kate] How creepy is that?
[Devin] Dude,
this is so medieval.
Oh my God.
"So also, there are rumours
that after an unholy visitation
from Count Saint
Germain in 1873,
there is a spiritual
gateway or portal
that is opened as a result."
- I mean, what the fuck?
- "Saint Germain was a fa..."
I've heard of this guy.
"...was this famous
French mystic
who was known around the
world as a powerful alchemist
who died in 1784.
This rumoured visit has a
massive impact on the community,
as many of the
congregation believed
Germain to be a heretic
and therefore making way
for wickedness in the church
rather than holy
work and observance.
There are suddenly sightings
of angels and demons
moving in and out of the world.
Some witnesses claim
to see giants moving
through wooded
landscapes at night.
Some sceptical church
members actually crossed
the plane of the portal
and are changed forever,
some blessed and some cursed.
[eerie music]
Terrified, the community
forbids any travel to the site
and declares the area
condemned by God.
The rift in the church grows
and the community becomes
defined by two separate camps,
the blessed living in the light
of the sun and the cursed,
retreating deeper into the
volcanic caves of the mountain."
Now that I got this,
I feel like I'm going to go
back down to the Cuyamacas.
At least look around a little
bit more now that I've got,
you know, almost
like a guide here.
You know what I mean?
- Okay. Be careful, but I think
you should go to Mount Shasta.
Like that's where they began.
That's where they settled.
God, it's just so weird.
- I know. Hold on a second,
let me walk you out.
But hold on, let me put
this down real quick.
Let me put the camera down,
hold on one second.
I'm going to take your advice.
I'm going to go down to the, uh,
Cuyamacas, and then
go up to Mount Shasta,
and I'll stay close to you.
Meaning I'll call
you and text you
and let you know
what's going on.
- Be safe, stay safe.
- Yeah. For sure.
- I appreciate you.
[lips smacking]
- Wait. [chuckles]
- What?
- Let's not do that.
- No? I'm sorry, I didn't...
I just felt like we were
connecting there, and...
- We're great,
let's not go down that road
- Yeah, okay, fair enough.
- No, but...
- Yeah. I'm sorry.
- No, you're, you're good.
- All right, let me
let me walk you out.
- You're okay.
Please be safe down there.
- Okay, I'll call you.
- All right.
- Okay.
- All right, Devin.
- I'll see you.
Fuck it.
Fuck!
[Devin coughing]
[eerie music]
Devin Adams, came back
up at the mountain.
Set up camp last night.
Came down,
and the space you see behind me.
That great big open space.
That's where the
shipping container was.
It's gone.
There is...
There are tracks in and out
of this area, this location.
Um. They stop here
because of the rain.
It rained here a lot.
Obviously, I think
when I was gone.
So there's nothing there.
There is one small
spray-painted stake
at the location where that
shipping container was.
I have no fucking clue.
Something or someone came in
here and took it out of here.
What's really weird is there
isn't even an impression
of where that
container would be.
It's just gone.
I mean, like I said before,
it looks like there are tracks
coming in and out,
but it looks like
something's been dug in there
or either may be buried.
I don't know,
but that's all that's left
of the shipping container.
Okay, so it looks like, um,
there was an orange case
buried in there.
So I'm going to pull it
here and bring it over.
[Devin grunting]
Uh, let me bring it
over to the RZR.
Looks like an iPad or some sort.
All right, I'm going to
bring it back to camp,
see what's going on.
I was able to open this up.
This is some type of a
video storage device.
It looks like it's almost some
kind of like a video diary.
I'm going to continue
to go through this.
[eerie music]
- I'm, uh...
I'm not feeling right.
Uh.
I have these daydreams.
They turn into
nightmares, and I'm...
It's like I'm in this mountain.
[tense music]
And I'm just hearing
just loud voices.
You don't have to worship a god.
you can worship another
higher consciousness.
Everything that is
going on in my head...
[tense music continues]
is recorded on this camera.
Every time I come out
of it, it's all there.
I don't know, I think I'm,
I think I'm...
losing something, I don't know.
- Okay, I have no idea
what we just saw.
Whatever is on this device,
based on that footage,
it's clear it's
over 30 years old.
That is about the
age Charlie was
when he, Kate and I
used to come up here
to these mountains and camp.
But beyond that, I've never
seen that footage before.
I have no idea what
the fuck is going on.
It's clear I was
meant to find this.
Or if this is some
kind of a fucking hoax
that's gone way too far.
But I'm over my head here.
I need to get this material...
I need to show this, this,
these videos to a professional.
Someone who, like a tech expert
who can look at this stuff
and tell me how old it is,
where and how it was created,
and just what the
fuck is going on here,
because this is decidedly
not fun anymore.
Everybody, this is
Marissa Terrace.
She is the IT manager at
the Everbank Conservatory.
I sent her some of
those video files
that were on that
video storage device.
She's an expert in
IT and metadata,
to see if she,
what her thoughts were.
I've known Marissa for years,
so I know the imagery
is kind of haunting
and weird and hallucinatory, but
what about the tech behind it?
What can you tell
me about the tech?
- It's not descriptive or
structural in any way.
Like it's not code,
it's not numbers.
It's not even letters
from a language,
like, it's all
just weird symbols.
- My understanding,
Marissa, about metadata
is it's, it is information,
meaning it's either
letters or numbers,
communicating what is
the reference to it?
What's the sources
on this stuff?
What do you mean by symbols?
- So it's like a
series of objects
that we've never seen before.
Most especially
seated as metadata.
So we've seen,
so we've just stopped looking
at the materials altogether
because we're afraid of a virus
spreading into
our networks here.
So I can see some anxiety
in the team in the office.
And we're all just afraid of
some type of Trojan horse event
that could occur,
that could occur to us.
Um, so I highly recommend
being really careful
with how and where
you show these clips
just in case it spreads.
- Oh.
Oh, shit.
Long ride through
a winter storm,
but we have made it
to Mount Shasta.
It's got some cloud cover
and it is super cold,
it was just snowing a
second ago when I got here.
So my hope is tomorrow
this is going to clear,
and we'll start exploring
the volcanic tubes.
I'm going to go directly
to those coordinates
I got from Doctor Abigail, so.
But this whole valley is
kind of extraordinary.
Look at this.
It's freaking gorgeous.
I think I'd find God here.
Okay, I gotta show
you guys this.
The sun finally came out,
and you can see the peak.
Check this out.
[eerie music]
It's beautiful.
So, okay, I'm at the,
um, coordinates location.
Uh, so it looks like I'm
coming up on something here.
Uh, we may have, uh,
we may have found
something here a second.
Oh, yeah.
We found it.
This is the first
entrance to the cave.
Pretty substantial.
Um, there does look like
there's been traffic here.
Obviously, there's, like,
uh, it looks like a lot of
teenagers have been here.
There's, um, some
graffiti on the walls.
I can see there's
another cave over there.
God, this thing just opens up
in all these different ways.
[gentle music]
I'm just going to
keep the body cam on.
So I've got my arms
and hands and feet.
So if I take a tumble.
All right, let's see
what happens here.
Oh.
Man, they just keep going.
The thing that is kind
of incredible here
is just how vast they are.
Like they're massive.
They're they're truly cavernous.
And there's just there's
no question being here,
you could live here.
Here's the thing that's
really interesting.
It's very cold out,
it's 30 degrees outside, but
it's easily about 55 in here.
Okay. I've decided
to stop for a second.
I'm feeling very bad.
Like I'm feeling, uh,
unbelievably woozy.
Uh, I don't quite know.
Um, I'm kind of on a pile of
rocks here right now, and, um.
I'm not quite sure why this is
just this unbelievable sudden
feeling of sickness has become,
uh, just overwhelmed me.
I'm gonna shine a light on me
and say I'm gonna head back.
- Devin, it's me.
Call me back when you get
this, because it's important.
So I have a friend who knows
a librarian in Monterrey.
This librarian has a collection
of rare books and diaries
that were all published
during the Gold Rush era.
And they even include
some information on those
old mountain communities.
We found a short chapter on
the Church of Heaven's Light,
but it's not good, Devin.
Listen, in the late 1890s,
the church was
made up of remnants
of the gold migration
to Mount Shasta.
These were derelict communities,
mostly of failed fortunes
and desperate measures.
These unfortunates
turned to religious fever
to improve their station,
but white magic gave
way to black magic
within a few years.
Witchcraft, possession,
sacrifice were all reported
as sordid behaviour in this
dark and broken community.
Please, Devin, you
have to call me back.
We need to talk about this
before you continue
this investigation any further.
[Devin breathing heavily]
[Devin mumbling]
[eerie music]
[Devin mumbling]
[Devin groaning]
- Oh.
[Devin grunting]
Oh.
- Hey, Devin.
I just wanted to talk
to you for a second.
I just got a phone call
from my team at the office.
Those disturbing videos that
you sent us the other day
have been playing
non-stop on loop
on all terminals at our office.
We've lost all control
of the network.
I don't know what the fuck is
going on, but it's not good.
Please call me as
soon as you get this.
I need to talk to you
as soon as possible.
[eerie screaming]
- I don't jump to conclusions,
but I do not...
[clears throat]
I do not feel well.
[eerie music]
I think this is
probably going to do it.
I think I'm gonna pack
it up and head back.
[eerie music]
I gotta get the
fuck out of here...
[Devin grunting and retching]
[tense music]
So today's going to be the
last day on the mountain.
Terrible, terrible headaches,
um, but, uh, oh, God,
wait, can't you see?
Let me get some light.
Hold on a second.
But yeah, it's pretty bad.
I think I'm gonna
get out of here.
Um. I just feel like
I must look like shit.
[exhales]
Oh, man.
Oh, no.
[eerie music]
Is this... is this a dream?
I don't, I don't understand,
where am I?
- You're in the Cuyamacas.
The place behind the clouds.
[tense music]
[face cracking]
[Devin gasping]
- Oh my God.
I never left the Cuyamacas.
[Devin sighs]
So here we are.
I, uh.
[clears throat]
I'm...
starting to have these
horrific, uh, hallucinations,
or they're like, waking dreams.
And, um, and they
happen at night too,
when I, if I'm, when I think
I'm sleeping, but I don't know,
um, the lines between what
is real and what's not real
are just getting
more and more blurred.
But these images that I'm seeing
are showing up in the
technology all around me,
like my phone or
this, this device,
whatever this is,
it's, it's like recording.
It's like the
technology around me
is recording what is in my mind.
And these images are terrifying.
When I, when I leave, I'm
seeing these massive structures
growing under the ground.
They're like, it looks
like they're made of bone,
but they're these huge spires
that reach up into the sky
like 30 or 40ft,
and every day they're
getting bigger and taller.
And I'm, I don't want to get
close to them because they emit
this deep bass drone,
and it feels like my
whole body is vibrating
when I get close to them.
And every day that goes by,
I feel like I'm losing
my grasp of reality.
[phone ringing]
- Doctor Adams, it's me, Archer,
I thought I should
call you again.
I haven't heard from you.
I'm getting worried.
But I found more information
on the cult, okay,
and we really need
to talk about it
because there's some sick,
twisted, medieval shit
that's been going down up there,
and you are making me worried.
did get that job,
so that's good.
Please call me.
[eerie music]
[dramatic music]
- Reverend.
Reverend, Reverend.
[spooky voice] Reverend.
[sombre music]
- It's in the community.
Whatever is in my mind.
Whatever I see here
goes up here.
This machine,
this fucking screen.
[eerie music]
[Kate] Devin!
Wake up!
[tense music]
[tense music continues]
- It's nice to finally meet you.
Don't be afraid.
You're safe.
- Is this...
Is this a dream?
Like...
am I...
Am I projecting this?
- No,
this is real.
- I don't understand.
- I know it's going to be a
little confusing for you,
but come sit down.
Let me explain.
I'm presenting myself in
a form you can understand.
We thought it would make
things a little easier for you.
I know this is hard
for you to grasp,
but we are inside
another dimension.
[eerie music]
I'm not actually human.
I was thousands of years ago,
part of a species that existed
alongside Homo Homosapiens.
We were cut off from the
rest of evolving humanity
by a series of geographic shifts
that forced us to go
deeper below the surface
in caves and volcanic
tubes, living in darkness.
Our brains evolved
differently than yours.
Underground,
we never had to fear being prey.
And without the
use of our senses,
our intelligence and cognitive
skills grew at an
exponential rate,
and we were able to
access other dimensions,
moving through portals
around the planet
for thousands of years,
using spires like
the one we're in now.
- How is it that we
haven't seen you?
How have you been
hidden from us?
- We're not hidden.
We come and go as we like.
And you see us all the time.
Moving through the fourth
dimension cast shadows
and your technology
and intuition
picks it up as
paranormal activity.
- What about the Church
of Heaven's Light?
Are you part of all of that?
- No.
the history of the
church is human.
They simply made a mistake by
establishing their community
too close to the portal
near Mount Shasta.
The cursed humans
you are tracking
are trespassers that
have been corrupted
by going in and out the portal.
Time changes when
humans cross the plane.
They live longer lives,
but their bodies are corrupted
by the pressures within.
We have to relocate
them when necessary.
[eerie music continues]
- What about a man
named Charles Anker?
Is he a part of this?
- Your friend is an abomination.
He's one of the founding
members of the church.
He's lived for
hundreds of years.
- We are the lesser
species, Devin.
We always have been.
You don't have to worship a god.
You can worship another kind
of higher consciousness.
- Charlie, how how how
are you even here?
What's... Charlie, look at me.
- All you had to do was embrace
the power and build anew.
I left you the videos.
The signal helped
you cross over.
It holds our redemption.
You were the key, Devin.
My body was giving out.
- The key to what?
I don't...
Please help me understand.
I'm trying to understand.
[eerie music]
- The church needed
a new leader.
This was your opportunity
to help us begin again.
To worship at the feet
of the higher species.
They deserve our obedience,
our worship, our love.
Why can't you see that?
[eerie music continues]
- Don't worry, Devin,
we know this is
difficult for you.
We will wipe your memory
and return you home.
[tense music]
[tense music continues]
Don't project the memory, Devin.
You'll corrupt the spire!
[sombre music]
[blow thuds]
[sombre music continues]
The lesser species, indeed.
[sombre music continues]
[gentle music]
- Okay, bye.
Take this.
Look, I don't care
who you need to call,
but we need to get someone
on this right away.
It's been over six months.
Not a day goes by that his
ex-wife doesn't call me.
[computer chimes]
Is this, is this her?
Archer, this is Sheriff Gotlieb.
Can you hear me?
- Sheriff? Um.
Yeah, how can I help you, sir?
Look, I don't have
a lot of time,
and I know you're fairly
new to our office,
but I need everyone's
help on this.
I'm sending you a secured
link with evidence
we recovered from
a deserted trailer
up in Cuyamaca Mountains.
It's a digital download
taken from what looks
like an iPad device
we found at the site.
Uh, we haven't seen
this material yet,
so yours were the first eyes.
But based on the licence
and the registration
of the vehicle,
we think it may offer
clues to a man that's
been reported missing.
Look, it should be
coming through shortly.
- Okay. I just got it
through my email.
Let me see if it
will open on my end.
Okay.
- Can you get moving
on this right away?
- Doctor Adams?
- Did you hear me?
- Holy shit, Sheriff,
I know this man.
- Archer?
Can she hear me?
[gentle music continues]
- What the hell is this?
- I think the
connection might be bad.
[eerie music]
Archer, are we good?
[music intensifies]
- Oh my God.
[dramatic music]
[wind blows]
[birds singing]
[logo chimes]
[eerie music]
[eerie music continues]
Um, this condition has
gotten significantly worse
and I don't quite
know what to do.
I'm, I'm absolutely at a loss,
and I'm reaching a
point of desperation.
I cannot get out of here.
I get behind the
wheel of my truck
that is attached to this camper,
and I try to drive away
and I don't know how to drive.
I don't know how to
move the vehicle.
I don't know the symbols,
I don't...
I literally stare at it
like, I have no idea
how to use this truck.
It is as if my brain
is a hard drive
and something has gone through
and removed the apps of
communication and contact,
but left everything
else the same.
I have no idea how I got here
and how to get out of here.
Whatever this is,
whatever's going on here,
I, I don't it doesn't hurt,
but it obviously is directly
related to the fact that I've,
um,
I've...
I've lost my mind.
So I was searching around
this trailer today,
I came across a, a storage
compartment inside of it.
It had all these,
they're like media drives.
They're like,
uh, things you would hook up
to a camera or a video system
and they all have names on them.
This one says Mount Shasta,
this one says Charlie,
and there's a bunch of them.
I think I can remember how to
hook up some of these cameras,
and I'm thinking
maybe they could
offer some kind of explanation.
Maybe they give me some kind
of help to get out of here.
I don't know.
[sighs]
I gotta get out of here.
I don't know, I'm gonna try it.
So the other reason I really
like this light is because you
can adjust the colour
temperatures right here.
But the best thing is it
runs off a battery pack
so that you can use it
as a lighting source,
but you can also
use it as a lantern,
which sometimes...
[groans]
maybe I should turn off my
phone before I start taping.
Kate, you call me more now than
when you were married to me.
Hello?
Yeah. Hey, what's up?
Um, yeah, I'm around tomorrow.
What's going on?
Trip down memory...
What kind of trip
down memory lane?
Yeah, all right,
I'm around all day tomorrow.
Um. Yeah.
Stop by the house.
Okay. Bye.
All right.
Turn, turn off your
fucking phone, Devin.
All right, let's do this again.
And yet, the quality,
This shoots 4K just
as well as this canon,
and it's about half the size.
Hello? Hey, come in.
Yeah.
- Oh wow, what do you
got going on here?
You got a lot of stuff.
- Yeah, well, I'm doing a, um...
You know, I, I, you know
how much I love videography
and stuff like that.
So now I'm doing some posts...
I'm posting stuff
on social media
comparing like, cameras.
So people who go hiking
and you know, it's...
now I've got some
time on my hands,
- Yeah.
- so I'm doing it, so.
- Keeping yourself busy, well...
- Yeah, it's cool,
how are you doing?
- I'm good, I'm good.
I just wanted to stop by and
drop something off for you, uh.
- What is this?
- Okay, so Charlie gave
me this box of tapes.
- Charlie?
- Charlie did, yeah.
And he asked me
to hang on to them
and give them to you
once you were retired.
[Kate laughs]
I have no idea why.
- Dude, these are...
- Look at these.
- This is, like, back when
we were in school together.
- I know, I didn't
give them much thought
because you know Charlie.
- Have you looked at them?
- I haven't, no, no, I...
- Do you want to look at them?
- No. I'm pretty good with
leaving the past in the past.
I, I, God love Charlie,
but, uh, whatever they are
I probably wouldn't
understand it anyway.
- Wow, this is really cool.
Maybe I'll do a
video about this.
- Yes, yes you should.
- You should.
- Really bizarre.
Um, well, thank you
for bringing them by,
- Yeah, no problem.
- Do you want to...
- Do you want some more
coffee or something?
- No, no,
I'm good, I gotta run.
I just, uh, hope you don't mind
me just crashing your party.
But I just wanted to...
- Listen, I appreciate
you coming by.
- It's really good to see you.
- No problem.
- If there's some
interesting stuff on here,
I think I may
digitise these tapes.
That way I can bring them
into the editing system
and have more control over it.
I know it's not necessarily
the best system to digitise,
but maybe at least offer
some clues as to why
these tapes were left for
me in the first place.
[tape humming]
- I heard from a
few people today,
so the word's already spreading,
that you totally freaked
the fuck out in class
and scared the shit
out of everyone.
Scared the shit out
of your professor.
[Devin] What?
- And...
[Devin] Wait, what did you do?
- What happened, man?
[Devin] Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Yeah. What did you do?
- There's just so much fucking
lying going on in these classes.
I asked...
I was in my anthropology class
and I asked my
professor about it,
I asked a question about
the Silurian theory.
[Devin] The what?
- And he just kind of
blew right past it,
just dismissed it
as fucking nonsense.
[Devin] Wait.
- It just...
it pissed me off, so I got...
Yeah, I got in his face.
[Devin] The what theory?
- So, you got so upset about...
what is this, the salvia theory?
[Devin] The Saliva.
- The Saliva theory?
[Devin] It's the Saliva theory.
- It's the Silurian theory,
dumbass.
It's basically...
it's this theory that says
our evolution was basically
tied to another advanced
or intelligent species
- Like aliens?
Is that what you're saying?
- Yeah, I mean, maybe, or,
you know, another species
kind of like us, intelligent,
that evolved and then died
out millions of years ago.
- Kind of fucking crazy.
[Devin] Yeah, dude, you're on a
scholarship, bro.
What are you...
[eerie music]
- Let's do some math.
Let's take fucking...
Let's take dinosaurs
as an example.
So.
[Devin chuckling]
- T-Rex.
There were about 20,000 of
them at any given point,
and they were around for
about 2.5 million years.
So 120,000, some odd
generations, 2.5 billion total.
- Ever?
- Yeah, ever.
Out of that, you know
how many we've found?
What do you mean, like, like
fossils and museums and stuff?
- Yeah.
- All time, that we found?
- You know how many?
- 5000?
[Devin] Yeah, a thousand?
- A thousand?
[Devin] Easily a thousand.
- Right? Easy.
- Less than 50.
[Devin] What?
- Bullshit. I call bullshit.
- That's a fact.
[Devin] For real?
[Devin] Is that a real stat?
- Less than 50.
There's another species
kind of like us,
however many millions
of years ago.
It's pretty safe to assume that
there'd be no evidence of them.
Just like there's been...
There's going to be
no evidence of us.
No cars, no skyscrapers,
no plastics, no bones.
[eerie music]
[Devin] I think it's an
interesting idea
as a thought experiment,
Charlie, um, I do,
but I don't think you can apply
real science to this stuff.
- Real science?
[Devin] You know what I mean?
Why isn't this
fucking real science?
- Because it's not
in our textbooks.
- No, listen, this
is the problem
with our fucking education.
It assumes that our
evolution had something to do
with some kind of divine,
superior intelligence.
It kind of moved
us along like that.
Like, like we were chosen.
It's like, it's kind of like
my dad used to say, you know,
we were talking
about our church,
just that you don't
have to worship a God,
you can worship another kind
of higher consciousness.
[Devin] Wait, wait, was this the
church in the mountain?
- Yeah.
[Devin] Yeah.
- I don't know, man.
[Devin] Yeah, I'm done.
- You're acting a little weird.
[Devin] I'm done.
Hey. Thank you for coming over.
Do you mind if I film you?
- Oh. [laughs]
[Devin] I know, I know,
it's... come on in.
Let me explain.
- Do I need to do a little pose?
[Devin] Uh, no.
Okay, so this has
everything to do with
those, uh, tapes you
brought over the other day.
So I'm...
I have a couple of
questions for you,
but I'm filming everything now,
because of some
of the stuff
I've been discovering
on these tapes.
So do you mind if I just ask you
a couple of questions on camera?
- Um, okay.
[Devin] Okay, cool, thanks,
let's, let's go
in the other room.
Do you remember Charlie used to
talk about this
church all the time.
- Oh, yeah.
- Do you remember
[Devin] what that was called?
- Oh my gosh, yes.
The, uh,
The church of heaven's light.
[Devin] Heaven's light?
- Remember? He would
not shut up about it.
[Devin] Yeah,
he was obsessed with that.
- Wow do you think that that
something with the church
had something to do with
why he killed himself.
[Devin] I don't know.
I don't know.
I mean, well, you know, I
think the whole church thing
was him processing what
happened to his dad.
- That's what I always thought.
[Devin] Yeah, so...
- I didn't think much of the
church one way or the other,
I just thought it was...
[Devin] I didn't
think it was real.
- I didn't either.
[Devin] Yeah. so, okay, well,
this is, this is helpful.
So what I'm thinking is,
could I show you...
Would you be okay if I showed
you a couple of these clips
- Yeah.
[Devin] that I've come across?
Because I just wanna...
Maybe it'll jog
something in your memory,
or maybe you'd be like, oh,
yeah, no, I remember that part.
And maybe I'm just
simply forgetting.
- Yeah, I'm happy to look at it.
I'm curious to look
at the tapes now.
[tape humming]
It's not good at all.
I have three essays,
all due on Wednesday.
- You got to get your boyfriend
to ease back a little bit,
but, it's still...
he's just talking on and on.
- God, will you
please go easy on him?
I mean, we only have two more
weeks and then we're free.
Speaking of which,
are we still going up to
the mountain next month.
- Oh, dude, I can't wait.
[eerie music]
[music intensifies]
[Kate] Are you sure?
Being up there?
- Yes, mom.
I'll be fine, thanks.
Here, let me see that.
Okay. I mean, I just worry,
that's all.
[Charlie] You don't
got to worry.
I love it when we go up there.
Plus, it's God's country.
- Oh my God! Stop! You dick!
- What are we talking
over here, guys?
You guys talking
about constellations?
- Yeah.
Yeah, I don't...
- Yeah, I couldn't find them.
- Yeah, I know, like
I know the dippers,
the big and the little ones,
but yeah, I think whoever
came up with the other ones
was probably really bored.
[Alex laughs]
- Or really baked.
[eerie music]
- What about the
black and white?
Like, what was that?
[Devin] I don't know, and that's
what I'm trying to figure out.
- That's down on
that, that, that land.
I recognise the land,
but the shipping
container thing.
[Devin] Yeah, I don't know.
- And who was the guy?
- Again, I don't know.
- Ooh, dude, that's creepy.
[Devin] Yeah. Okay, well, good,
I'm just glad I'm not crazy.
- No, I don't remember
any of that.
You should get down there
and figure out what that is.
[bright orchestral music]
- Good God, they're huge.
Okay, uh, whoo.
I am way the hell up here.
Just to let you know,
I'm we're, um, yeah,
way up here and kind of
in the middle of nowhere
and going higher.
So I'm not quite sure what is
going to happen with the signal,
so I just wanted to
make you a quick video.
Um, yeah, I think it's
going to be pretty cool.
[bright orchestral music ends]
Don't be jealous of this look.
[birds singing]
Hey there, my name
is Devin Adams.
I'm a retired doctor
of visual studies
from the University of
Southern California.
Should we keep going?
Okay, let's go to a bar.
There she goes.
I'm out here in the
Cuyamaca Mountains.
They are 20/25 minutes
northeast of Mexico.
I'm up here because of a
certain series of events
that took place,
starting with the death of a
very, very dear friend of mine
by the name of Charles Anker.
Charlie was a brilliant guy,
we were really close.
We met, we were
roommates in college.
In fact, my ex-wife and I met
him when we were sophomores,
and we were quite the trio.
We'd come up here
sometimes, actually,
because my wife and
I thought it might be
therapeutic for Charlie,
given what happened to
him in his childhood.
I know this might seem hard
to believe, but Charlie,
when he was ten years old,
was discovered walking
in these mountains alone
by some weekend campers,
and they immediately
swept him up.
He told the authorities that
he was on a camping trip
with his church
congregation and his father,
and so they immediately
sent out a search party.
And the only thing they
found, unfortunately,
was Charlie's father,
who had fallen off one
of these massive boulders
while hiking and
had broken his neck.
Unfortunately,
Charlie never really
knew his mother,
so he ended up going
into foster care.
But, you know, like I said,
he was a really tough kid.
He was really brilliant,
very book smart,
and he earned himself
a scholarship.
He was pretty resilient.
But as with most relationships,
as you get older,
they start to fade,
and my connections with
Charlie became pretty distant.
[sombre music]
These things are incredible,
especially when you've
got this kind of scenery.
It's extraordinary.
She doesn't care for
the drone, but, um,
it really is cool because
you get this footage
and then I'll just
kind of put music to it
and I'll just throw
it in the timeline.
You know, the editing
system that I'm working on.
Okay,
here we go.
You gonna get her?
[Devin laughs]
You don't like it, do you?
[drone whirring]
But you gonna get it?
[dog barking]
Okay. All right,
here we go, ready?
Here it goes.
[suspenseful music]
Pretty cool, huh?
You're like, fuck that thing.
Okay, I thought I'd
show you guys this.
Uh, this is one of the perks of
retirement.
Yeah, I thought I would
bring this sucker up here.
Put it on a trailer and
brought it up a few days ago.
I thought it might
help in the search.
Get into some
really tight spaces,
but it's also super fun.
[engine roaring]
And there's always
something I've wanted to do.
Total mad Max.
[engine roaring]
Whoa!
Come on, man!
[upbeat music]
Okay, so I've been cruising all
over the place with this sucker,
and, um,
just came across something
pretty interesting.
Ta da!
I have no clue.
It just doesn't...
Looks in great shape.
Which is impossible
given the fact that it's
at least 30 years old.
[sighs] I don't know.
This just doesn't
make any sense.
It's...
it's all...
it's locked on the front,
on both sides.
It's got a padlock on it.
I don't, I don't get it.
I don't get it.
I'm confused even more now.
None of this makes
any fucking sense.
Okay. Welcome to the
incredibly spacious camper.
It's all of 15ft,
but it's...
will definitely protect me
from whatever is out there.
This is a trail cam.
These are some high
quality trail cams
that shoot its signal
up to the cloud.
And I'm going to
take two of these
and place them on opposite
sides of the conex,
the shipping container.
I just want to see
what kind of traffic
is potentially either coming
in and out of that thing
or what might be just around it.
So I'm going to put these out
tonight and, um, we'll see.
Uh, go back in a couple
days and take a look.
But...
yeah, we'll see what we see.
[heavy breathing]
[bird calls]
[insects chirping]
[bird calls]
[intense music]
[eerie music]
Okay, so that freaked
me the fuck out.
Uh, I'm not quite sure
what's going on here,
but whoever, whatever it
was that grabbed that,
my trail cam has
now brought it
into the shipping
container with them,
and they are filming
themselves inside the conex.
[eerie music]
I reached out to a friend
of mine named Malcolm Owens.
He's in the
anthropology department
at University of Wisconsin,
and he, I asked him if he'd be
willing to do a Zoom with me,
because I wanted to
ask him specifically
about this dysmorphia.
As well as I noticed,
this was really interesting,
at the end of that footage,
as close as I could tell,
it looked like that individual
was either reading a notebook
or holding a
notebook in his hand.
- The other option would be,
you know, quite frankly,
whether or not it has
become a cultural aspect
of removing the nose
for ceremonial reasons
or for hygienic reasons,
or for just outward
appearance ideas.
Or is this something that they
outwardly disfigure
themselves on purpose
as part of a cultural ritual
that might have some bearing
on where they're at
and what, what they're doing.
- I, it's interesting, uh,
honestly, Malcolm, I
hadn't thought of that.
I hadn't thought of
the idea that they had,
this was almost like
a self-mutilation.
Maybe this is a cultural
thing they're doing.
- I think I would lean more
towards the cultural aspect,
um, or a ceremonial aspect.
Did you see it?
Was your interpretation
of the image
that he was reading
this notebook?
- I, you know, I don't
want to go so far as to
anthropomorphise a
a particular act.
Is this a piece of artwork?
Is this, you know,
a writing sample?
Is this a, a song?
I don't know.
- Archer. Hey, oh, my God,
you accepted the invite.
Thank you so much.
How are you?
What's going on?
How's SC?
- I'm good, Dr Adams,
it's so great to hear from you.
To see you.
Um, SC is great.
I graduate the program soon.
Christmas around that time.
So that's cool.
- That's amazing, Archer,
I'm so proud of you.
What? You're getting your
degree in criminology now,
is that right?
- Yeah, yeah,
I actually, I, I might even
have a line-up job for me
if you...
Did you get that email about
the letter of recommendation?
- I did.
- Yeah, yeah. I really,
really need it.
So if you can do it soon.
- I will, and I'm going to write
something up when I get back.
Um, listen, I know we need to do
a full sit down and a catch up.
I mean, it's been
a little while, so,
but I don't have
a lot of time up...
I'm, I'm kind of up here
and the internet is spotty.
- Where are you?
- I'm up in the, uh, the
Cuyamaca Mountains.
They're just east of, actually,
San Diego in the city.
I'm doing a favour
for an old friend,
um, and it's a long story,
and I'll kind of
share it with you
when I've got a
little more time.
So listen, this, this community
that I'm searching for is,
it was known as the
Church of Heaven's Light.
So have you ever heard
of something like that?
I, I, I'm just kind of curious,
in your research over the years.
- Is it a commune or
an actual church?
- You know, honestly,
Archer, I don't know.
Um, I, my understanding is that
it was a spiritual community
that was living up here in the
mountains, kind of off grid,
like living a
primitive lifestyle.
Um, so that's kind
of all I know.
- I can ask some of my friends,
we can scour the net.
I have some weird
sites bookmarked,
so that would definitely
come in handy.
I'll just write down
your notes here.
- I came across a
conex the other day
and you know, a conex is
like a shipping container.
It's huge, like 40 foot,
40 foot shipping container.
And it was in this
really good shape,
but, but I think, I think people
are using it as a shelter.
- Devin, if people are up in
the mountains by themselves,
I'm pretty sure they
don't want to be bothered.
Okay? And if they're
in shipping containers,
that means that they're
moving around a lot.
- Yeah.
- Be careful.
I don't think you should
be up there by yourself.
- Okay. All right.
Um. Uh.
Shit. You know what?
You've gone frozen.
You know?
Archer, are you still there?
- Devin, did you hear what
I said about calling backup?
- Uh, Archer, are you there?
- Doctor Adams?
don't forget about the
letter of recommendation
if you can hear me.
[computer chimes]
- Okay. It's dusk here,
and I've been tooling
around on this side-by-side,
and I was gonna
head back to camp,
but I thought I would
do one more drive-by
on the shipping container
just to see if
anything was going on.
And, uh, the...
The door, the door is open.
And I come rumbling up here
on this fucking side-by-side,
but I can't hear anything.
I have no video equipment
aside from this, uh, body cam,
but I feel like I'm here.
The door is open,
I should go in.
Yeah.
Hopefully, I can catch...
I don't know what's in here.
Hello?
Hello? Anybody there?
Anybody home?
What the fuck?
That's a candle.
That is a lit candle.
[knocks on door] Hey, hello?
Anybody home?
[Devin sighs]
[indistinct]
I think those are the notebooks
that I saw in the
trail cam footage.
I want to see what's in those.
I want to see what's
in those notebooks.
Hello? Anybody home?
What is this?
It looks like math.
[eerie music]
Hello?
Hello. I just...
Hello.
So, listen, first of all, Sean,
I want you to know how
much I really appreciate
you doing this for me.
I don't know what to think
about these notebooks.
- The notebooks are very weird,
and they look like gibberish,
but if you start to analyse
them, then you get some...
you see some math at a
staggeringly high level,
and it's, like, it seems
like a mess at first,
and I was almost like, Devin,
what have you done to me?
But then I got into it
and there was some great,
fascinating material here,
extraordinary math in there.
The most compelling
thing we found
was what looks like
there are four different
sets of coordinates
and they're pointing to four
different places on the planet.
The vortexes that they refer to,
one is in Sedona, Arizona.
One is Mount Shasta, California.
The third is a location in
Zion National Park in Utah.
And the strangest of all
are the coordin a tes
for this location
that's just north of us here.
And that is Viroqua
in Wisconsin.
- Is there a language going
on here amidst all this?
- Okay, so we applied
this old school method,
the Tamario method,
and I had some graduate
students work with me on this.
And it turns out that
some of the long numbers,
like you can basically translate
them into another language,
and in this case,
we found parallels,
like we could sort of de-encrypt
it into German in some places,
and we transferred
that to English,
and we came up with some
pretty cryptic shit,
I got to say.
Now, this is a very
loose translation.
I'm sure you're going to want
to run this by a linguist.
But this is what we came up with
for one of the,
one of the passages.
we've got, quote,
prepare for heaven's light.
You don't need eyes
to see your Saviour.
Now, there was some debate about
whether we should use
this term Saviour,
but for this translation,
let's go with it.
Forget the mind to
find your faith.
The faithless will
suffer forever.
End quote.
Now what the hell
is going on there?
- Holy shit, you're really sure?
This is what these
numbers translate to?
- It's almost like...
- Yes.
- Scripture.
- It feels very scriptural to,
to, to us over here in the lab.
- Okay, so I'm at the
shipping container.
I'm going to give it a shot.
I'm going to try
to open the door.
I've got my video camera here.
I've got my body cam on.
I'm going to put this down here.
[doors creaking]
[dramatic thud]
[doors creaking]
[Devin breathing shakily]
[eerie voice talking
indistinctly]
[voice continues]
- Devin, Archer here.
So I did try to do some
research on Heaven's Light.
Didn't find much.
However, I did come across
a file that was documented
by a woman named Gina Globe.
So it says here that she
was a topographical mapper
for the Bureau of
Land Management
in San Diego County.
And around eight years ago,
she claims she came across
a shipping container while
documenting some acreage
in the Cuyumacas.
In a file, she claimed that the
conex was in pristine condition
and there was no record of its
location filed with the county.
The report says that she
discovered several people
living in primitive conditions
inside the container.
So there was a contact
number for Gina
and I decided to call her.
I don't know why,
I had to call six times,
but anyways, when I
did finally reach her,
she denied the entire report.
I don't want to say
that she was lying,
but you could tell that
she was hiding something.
Or as if she was afraid
to say something.
I don't know, maybe I'm
looking into it way too much,
but just give me a call
back when you can.
[screen flickers]
[phone ringing]
- Hey, Devin, it's Kate.
Uh, I'm just checking to see
if you're back in the city yet.
I have something that I found
that I think you find
pretty interesting.
So give me a call when
you have a second.
I'd love to swing
by and see you,
um, and let's have a chat.
- Hi.
[Devin] Hey.
[Devin] Uh, well, come on in.
- It's not my house any more.
[Devin] Yeah.
- Sorry.
[Devin] That's okay.
Wait, wait, wait, wait,
what's going on?
- You've got your camera going.
[Devin] Yes, I do.
- You're not going
to believe this.
Um, so what do I start?
Okay, so right
after our divorce,
Charlie knew I was broke.
He offered me some money to do
some accounting and bookkeeping.
I think I mentioned...
- I remember you telling
me a little bit about this,
but it was just spotty.
- Yeah, so anyway,
right after he killed himself,
his office manager
got in touch with me
and just wanted to send me some
of the financials
from the business.
- Okay.
- And so I got these
boxes of financials
and I didn't think
anything of it,
so I just threw it into storage.
- Right.
- But then after
I saw your video,
I decided to go through
one of the boxes,
and in one of the
boxes I found this.
- What is this?
- You are not going
to believe this.
- What is it?
- It's very old.
- Yeah, clearly.
- It is the history of the
Church of Heaven's Light.
- No way.
- I kid you not.
- There's old photos.
- Be very careful with it.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Old photos,
diaries, everything.
The crazy shit that
Charlie used to talk about,
it's all in here.
And it's written by,
get this,
it's written by a guy,
his name was Timothy Anker.
- Charlie Anker. Oh my god.
- I think it's like his great
great-grandfather or something,
[Devin] Oh my god, that's crazy.
[Kate] who wrote this.
I don't even know where to start
to tell you what's in here.
First of all,
what do you know about
the Mormon church?
- I, not very much, I know,
like John Smith or Joe Smith.
- Joseph Smith.
See, I didn't know either,
so I did a deep dive.
I took some notes.
Okay, so after the
death of Joseph Smith,
Brigham Young,
you've heard of him, right?
Okay, so he leads
the group from, um,
he leads a group from Nauvoo,
Illinois, to Salt Lake City.
That's how they land in Utah.
- Okay.
- And at the same time, there
was a group of 30 or so Puritans
living in a place called
Viroqua, Wisconsin.
Viroqua
- Viroqua, Wisconsin.
Okay, so you don't
know any of this,
but I hired this guy, this man,
I found these journals in this
shipping container down there.
They were full of numbers and
all sorts of weird equations,
and I gave them
to a mathematician
who was a, just a peer of mine
and its coordinates
and its coordinates to a place
in Viroqua, fucking Wisconsin.
- Yeah. This is...
- What?
- Okay. Keep going, keep going.
- Okay, so when they heard
of Brigham Young's exodus,
they decided to join him
and go to Salt Lake City,
but once they arrived there,
the group from Wisconsin
had issues with Young's
leadership in the church.
And, you know, their views
were far more conservative
than the Mormons.
- So I know, right?
- Wow, yeah.
- How do you be more
conservative than them?
- Yeah.
- So they decided to
pick up and go west.
They went to a place called
Mount Shasta,
Northern California.
- Yeah, we...
- No, yeah.
- We drove past Mount Shasta
- Right, exactly, I think
we went up there once.
They put down roots
and established a religious
community for over 40 years.
So this section I
want to read for you
speaks specifically to what
you said you saw, those people.
- Yeah.
- "Our camp has become
a strong community
over the past four months.
We've thrived in the shadow
of the mighty Mount Shasta.
It feels as though all of
our promises have come true.
Our church leader,
Reverend Ramsey,
has truly delivered
us unto salvation
by setting up this
community of faithful.
There have been multiple
sightings and visitations
from holy apparitions
since we've come to camp."
- What?
"After every sighting, there
are several worshippers
who are suddenly
cured of all ailments,
while at the same time
there are a few unfortunate
members of our church
who are stricken with
a terrible deformity.
It's as if their heads and
faces have become bloated
by some terrible condition.
They lose the ability to
speak and communicate,
but they seem to have grown
more robust in other ways.
I see them working in the rain
and cold longer than most,
but because of
their terrible brow,
they are ostracised by
the rest of the church.
I'm afraid the council
will vote to exile them
from our congregation."
There's another section I think
it was written by Charlie.
I think he did a
deep dive on this.
- "So after settling into
the church in the 1860s,
the congregation started
experiencing strong segregation
from the results of
the divine visits.
Parishioners who were
liberated from their ailments
were known as the blessed,
whilst those
suffering deformities
were known as the cursed."
[Kate] How creepy is that?
[Devin] Dude,
this is so medieval.
Oh my God.
"So also, there are rumours
that after an unholy visitation
from Count Saint
Germain in 1873,
there is a spiritual
gateway or portal
that is opened as a result."
- I mean, what the fuck?
- "Saint Germain was a fa..."
I've heard of this guy.
"...was this famous
French mystic
who was known around the
world as a powerful alchemist
who died in 1784.
This rumoured visit has a
massive impact on the community,
as many of the
congregation believed
Germain to be a heretic
and therefore making way
for wickedness in the church
rather than holy
work and observance.
There are suddenly sightings
of angels and demons
moving in and out of the world.
Some witnesses claim
to see giants moving
through wooded
landscapes at night.
Some sceptical church
members actually crossed
the plane of the portal
and are changed forever,
some blessed and some cursed.
[eerie music]
Terrified, the community
forbids any travel to the site
and declares the area
condemned by God.
The rift in the church grows
and the community becomes
defined by two separate camps,
the blessed living in the light
of the sun and the cursed,
retreating deeper into the
volcanic caves of the mountain."
Now that I got this,
I feel like I'm going to go
back down to the Cuyamacas.
At least look around a little
bit more now that I've got,
you know, almost
like a guide here.
You know what I mean?
- Okay. Be careful, but I think
you should go to Mount Shasta.
Like that's where they began.
That's where they settled.
God, it's just so weird.
- I know. Hold on a second,
let me walk you out.
But hold on, let me put
this down real quick.
Let me put the camera down,
hold on one second.
I'm going to take your advice.
I'm going to go down to the, uh,
Cuyamacas, and then
go up to Mount Shasta,
and I'll stay close to you.
Meaning I'll call
you and text you
and let you know
what's going on.
- Be safe, stay safe.
- Yeah. For sure.
- I appreciate you.
[lips smacking]
- Wait. [chuckles]
- What?
- Let's not do that.
- No? I'm sorry, I didn't...
I just felt like we were
connecting there, and...
- We're great,
let's not go down that road
- Yeah, okay, fair enough.
- No, but...
- Yeah. I'm sorry.
- No, you're, you're good.
- All right, let me
let me walk you out.
- You're okay.
Please be safe down there.
- Okay, I'll call you.
- All right.
- Okay.
- All right, Devin.
- I'll see you.
Fuck it.
Fuck!
[Devin coughing]
[eerie music]
Devin Adams, came back
up at the mountain.
Set up camp last night.
Came down,
and the space you see behind me.
That great big open space.
That's where the
shipping container was.
It's gone.
There is...
There are tracks in and out
of this area, this location.
Um. They stop here
because of the rain.
It rained here a lot.
Obviously, I think
when I was gone.
So there's nothing there.
There is one small
spray-painted stake
at the location where that
shipping container was.
I have no fucking clue.
Something or someone came in
here and took it out of here.
What's really weird is there
isn't even an impression
of where that
container would be.
It's just gone.
I mean, like I said before,
it looks like there are tracks
coming in and out,
but it looks like
something's been dug in there
or either may be buried.
I don't know,
but that's all that's left
of the shipping container.
Okay, so it looks like, um,
there was an orange case
buried in there.
So I'm going to pull it
here and bring it over.
[Devin grunting]
Uh, let me bring it
over to the RZR.
Looks like an iPad or some sort.
All right, I'm going to
bring it back to camp,
see what's going on.
I was able to open this up.
This is some type of a
video storage device.
It looks like it's almost some
kind of like a video diary.
I'm going to continue
to go through this.
[eerie music]
- I'm, uh...
I'm not feeling right.
Uh.
I have these daydreams.
They turn into
nightmares, and I'm...
It's like I'm in this mountain.
[tense music]
And I'm just hearing
just loud voices.
You don't have to worship a god.
you can worship another
higher consciousness.
Everything that is
going on in my head...
[tense music continues]
is recorded on this camera.
Every time I come out
of it, it's all there.
I don't know, I think I'm,
I think I'm...
losing something, I don't know.
- Okay, I have no idea
what we just saw.
Whatever is on this device,
based on that footage,
it's clear it's
over 30 years old.
That is about the
age Charlie was
when he, Kate and I
used to come up here
to these mountains and camp.
But beyond that, I've never
seen that footage before.
I have no idea what
the fuck is going on.
It's clear I was
meant to find this.
Or if this is some
kind of a fucking hoax
that's gone way too far.
But I'm over my head here.
I need to get this material...
I need to show this, this,
these videos to a professional.
Someone who, like a tech expert
who can look at this stuff
and tell me how old it is,
where and how it was created,
and just what the
fuck is going on here,
because this is decidedly
not fun anymore.
Everybody, this is
Marissa Terrace.
She is the IT manager at
the Everbank Conservatory.
I sent her some of
those video files
that were on that
video storage device.
She's an expert in
IT and metadata,
to see if she,
what her thoughts were.
I've known Marissa for years,
so I know the imagery
is kind of haunting
and weird and hallucinatory, but
what about the tech behind it?
What can you tell
me about the tech?
- It's not descriptive or
structural in any way.
Like it's not code,
it's not numbers.
It's not even letters
from a language,
like, it's all
just weird symbols.
- My understanding,
Marissa, about metadata
is it's, it is information,
meaning it's either
letters or numbers,
communicating what is
the reference to it?
What's the sources
on this stuff?
What do you mean by symbols?
- So it's like a
series of objects
that we've never seen before.
Most especially
seated as metadata.
So we've seen,
so we've just stopped looking
at the materials altogether
because we're afraid of a virus
spreading into
our networks here.
So I can see some anxiety
in the team in the office.
And we're all just afraid of
some type of Trojan horse event
that could occur,
that could occur to us.
Um, so I highly recommend
being really careful
with how and where
you show these clips
just in case it spreads.
- Oh.
Oh, shit.
Long ride through
a winter storm,
but we have made it
to Mount Shasta.
It's got some cloud cover
and it is super cold,
it was just snowing a
second ago when I got here.
So my hope is tomorrow
this is going to clear,
and we'll start exploring
the volcanic tubes.
I'm going to go directly
to those coordinates
I got from Doctor Abigail, so.
But this whole valley is
kind of extraordinary.
Look at this.
It's freaking gorgeous.
I think I'd find God here.
Okay, I gotta show
you guys this.
The sun finally came out,
and you can see the peak.
Check this out.
[eerie music]
It's beautiful.
So, okay, I'm at the,
um, coordinates location.
Uh, so it looks like I'm
coming up on something here.
Uh, we may have, uh,
we may have found
something here a second.
Oh, yeah.
We found it.
This is the first
entrance to the cave.
Pretty substantial.
Um, there does look like
there's been traffic here.
Obviously, there's, like,
uh, it looks like a lot of
teenagers have been here.
There's, um, some
graffiti on the walls.
I can see there's
another cave over there.
God, this thing just opens up
in all these different ways.
[gentle music]
I'm just going to
keep the body cam on.
So I've got my arms
and hands and feet.
So if I take a tumble.
All right, let's see
what happens here.
Oh.
Man, they just keep going.
The thing that is kind
of incredible here
is just how vast they are.
Like they're massive.
They're they're truly cavernous.
And there's just there's
no question being here,
you could live here.
Here's the thing that's
really interesting.
It's very cold out,
it's 30 degrees outside, but
it's easily about 55 in here.
Okay. I've decided
to stop for a second.
I'm feeling very bad.
Like I'm feeling, uh,
unbelievably woozy.
Uh, I don't quite know.
Um, I'm kind of on a pile of
rocks here right now, and, um.
I'm not quite sure why this is
just this unbelievable sudden
feeling of sickness has become,
uh, just overwhelmed me.
I'm gonna shine a light on me
and say I'm gonna head back.
- Devin, it's me.
Call me back when you get
this, because it's important.
So I have a friend who knows
a librarian in Monterrey.
This librarian has a collection
of rare books and diaries
that were all published
during the Gold Rush era.
And they even include
some information on those
old mountain communities.
We found a short chapter on
the Church of Heaven's Light,
but it's not good, Devin.
Listen, in the late 1890s,
the church was
made up of remnants
of the gold migration
to Mount Shasta.
These were derelict communities,
mostly of failed fortunes
and desperate measures.
These unfortunates
turned to religious fever
to improve their station,
but white magic gave
way to black magic
within a few years.
Witchcraft, possession,
sacrifice were all reported
as sordid behaviour in this
dark and broken community.
Please, Devin, you
have to call me back.
We need to talk about this
before you continue
this investigation any further.
[Devin breathing heavily]
[Devin mumbling]
[eerie music]
[Devin mumbling]
[Devin groaning]
- Oh.
[Devin grunting]
Oh.
- Hey, Devin.
I just wanted to talk
to you for a second.
I just got a phone call
from my team at the office.
Those disturbing videos that
you sent us the other day
have been playing
non-stop on loop
on all terminals at our office.
We've lost all control
of the network.
I don't know what the fuck is
going on, but it's not good.
Please call me as
soon as you get this.
I need to talk to you
as soon as possible.
[eerie screaming]
- I don't jump to conclusions,
but I do not...
[clears throat]
I do not feel well.
[eerie music]
I think this is
probably going to do it.
I think I'm gonna pack
it up and head back.
[eerie music]
I gotta get the
fuck out of here...
[Devin grunting and retching]
[tense music]
So today's going to be the
last day on the mountain.
Terrible, terrible headaches,
um, but, uh, oh, God,
wait, can't you see?
Let me get some light.
Hold on a second.
But yeah, it's pretty bad.
I think I'm gonna
get out of here.
Um. I just feel like
I must look like shit.
[exhales]
Oh, man.
Oh, no.
[eerie music]
Is this... is this a dream?
I don't, I don't understand,
where am I?
- You're in the Cuyamacas.
The place behind the clouds.
[tense music]
[face cracking]
[Devin gasping]
- Oh my God.
I never left the Cuyamacas.
[Devin sighs]
So here we are.
I, uh.
[clears throat]
I'm...
starting to have these
horrific, uh, hallucinations,
or they're like, waking dreams.
And, um, and they
happen at night too,
when I, if I'm, when I think
I'm sleeping, but I don't know,
um, the lines between what
is real and what's not real
are just getting
more and more blurred.
But these images that I'm seeing
are showing up in the
technology all around me,
like my phone or
this, this device,
whatever this is,
it's, it's like recording.
It's like the
technology around me
is recording what is in my mind.
And these images are terrifying.
When I, when I leave, I'm
seeing these massive structures
growing under the ground.
They're like, it looks
like they're made of bone,
but they're these huge spires
that reach up into the sky
like 30 or 40ft,
and every day they're
getting bigger and taller.
And I'm, I don't want to get
close to them because they emit
this deep bass drone,
and it feels like my
whole body is vibrating
when I get close to them.
And every day that goes by,
I feel like I'm losing
my grasp of reality.
[phone ringing]
- Doctor Adams, it's me, Archer,
I thought I should
call you again.
I haven't heard from you.
I'm getting worried.
But I found more information
on the cult, okay,
and we really need
to talk about it
because there's some sick,
twisted, medieval shit
that's been going down up there,
and you are making me worried.
did get that job,
so that's good.
Please call me.
[eerie music]
[dramatic music]
- Reverend.
Reverend, Reverend.
[spooky voice] Reverend.
[sombre music]
- It's in the community.
Whatever is in my mind.
Whatever I see here
goes up here.
This machine,
this fucking screen.
[eerie music]
[Kate] Devin!
Wake up!
[tense music]
[tense music continues]
- It's nice to finally meet you.
Don't be afraid.
You're safe.
- Is this...
Is this a dream?
Like...
am I...
Am I projecting this?
- No,
this is real.
- I don't understand.
- I know it's going to be a
little confusing for you,
but come sit down.
Let me explain.
I'm presenting myself in
a form you can understand.
We thought it would make
things a little easier for you.
I know this is hard
for you to grasp,
but we are inside
another dimension.
[eerie music]
I'm not actually human.
I was thousands of years ago,
part of a species that existed
alongside Homo Homosapiens.
We were cut off from the
rest of evolving humanity
by a series of geographic shifts
that forced us to go
deeper below the surface
in caves and volcanic
tubes, living in darkness.
Our brains evolved
differently than yours.
Underground,
we never had to fear being prey.
And without the
use of our senses,
our intelligence and cognitive
skills grew at an
exponential rate,
and we were able to
access other dimensions,
moving through portals
around the planet
for thousands of years,
using spires like
the one we're in now.
- How is it that we
haven't seen you?
How have you been
hidden from us?
- We're not hidden.
We come and go as we like.
And you see us all the time.
Moving through the fourth
dimension cast shadows
and your technology
and intuition
picks it up as
paranormal activity.
- What about the Church
of Heaven's Light?
Are you part of all of that?
- No.
the history of the
church is human.
They simply made a mistake by
establishing their community
too close to the portal
near Mount Shasta.
The cursed humans
you are tracking
are trespassers that
have been corrupted
by going in and out the portal.
Time changes when
humans cross the plane.
They live longer lives,
but their bodies are corrupted
by the pressures within.
We have to relocate
them when necessary.
[eerie music continues]
- What about a man
named Charles Anker?
Is he a part of this?
- Your friend is an abomination.
He's one of the founding
members of the church.
He's lived for
hundreds of years.
- We are the lesser
species, Devin.
We always have been.
You don't have to worship a god.
You can worship another kind
of higher consciousness.
- Charlie, how how how
are you even here?
What's... Charlie, look at me.
- All you had to do was embrace
the power and build anew.
I left you the videos.
The signal helped
you cross over.
It holds our redemption.
You were the key, Devin.
My body was giving out.
- The key to what?
I don't...
Please help me understand.
I'm trying to understand.
[eerie music]
- The church needed
a new leader.
This was your opportunity
to help us begin again.
To worship at the feet
of the higher species.
They deserve our obedience,
our worship, our love.
Why can't you see that?
[eerie music continues]
- Don't worry, Devin,
we know this is
difficult for you.
We will wipe your memory
and return you home.
[tense music]
[tense music continues]
Don't project the memory, Devin.
You'll corrupt the spire!
[sombre music]
[blow thuds]
[sombre music continues]
The lesser species, indeed.
[sombre music continues]
[gentle music]
- Okay, bye.
Take this.
Look, I don't care
who you need to call,
but we need to get someone
on this right away.
It's been over six months.
Not a day goes by that his
ex-wife doesn't call me.
[computer chimes]
Is this, is this her?
Archer, this is Sheriff Gotlieb.
Can you hear me?
- Sheriff? Um.
Yeah, how can I help you, sir?
Look, I don't have
a lot of time,
and I know you're fairly
new to our office,
but I need everyone's
help on this.
I'm sending you a secured
link with evidence
we recovered from
a deserted trailer
up in Cuyamaca Mountains.
It's a digital download
taken from what looks
like an iPad device
we found at the site.
Uh, we haven't seen
this material yet,
so yours were the first eyes.
But based on the licence
and the registration
of the vehicle,
we think it may offer
clues to a man that's
been reported missing.
Look, it should be
coming through shortly.
- Okay. I just got it
through my email.
Let me see if it
will open on my end.
Okay.
- Can you get moving
on this right away?
- Doctor Adams?
- Did you hear me?
- Holy shit, Sheriff,
I know this man.
- Archer?
Can she hear me?
[gentle music continues]
- What the hell is this?
- I think the
connection might be bad.
[eerie music]
Archer, are we good?
[music intensifies]
- Oh my God.
[dramatic music]
[wind blows]
[birds singing]